Oracle Blog

Words without the accent...

Thursday Jan 07, 2010

The fifteenth United Nations Climate Change Conference is over. Copenhagen hosted this 12 day conference which gained worldwide attention for leaked speculative data on actual planet temperature data. There are many opinions out there as to what are the scientific facts of the effects that humans contribute to global warming. Developed countries have learned both the economic and human effects when dealing with hazardous waste. Hopefully other countries will not be willing to sacrifice their people and ecosystems.

However here is where a dilemma is created. Developing nations may perceive pollution conformance as a means to slow down their economic growth, especially if developed countries are strong advocates. Global climate change conformance puts a large financial burden on the countries that are out of compliance compared to the developed nations.

I have been to developing countries where it hurts to take a breath... literally. I also remember the days of leaded gasoline, asbestos and mercury thermometers in the U.S. Do you think that developing nations feel that developed nations polluted their way to prosperity so why can't these countries do so as well?

There is a large amount of public data available on global warming. Fossil fuels seem to have the largest target on them for producing greenhouse gases which contributes to global warming. I recently finished reading SuperFreakonomics. There is an interesting chapter called "What Do Al Gore and Mount Pinatubo Have In Common?" It's a good first step into seeing a counterpoint to the global warming scientists data. For example Lowell Wood, who studied under Edward Teller, thinks that the current climate prediction models are "enormously crude." Another well known scientist Ken Caldeira, who was misquoted in the book, shares his thoughts as well.

As for my opinion, all nations need to be environment responsible, especially the largest emitters of pollution. However I'm on the fence with the data. I have a feeling that there are signs of an economic agenda... as always is the case.